Present Progressive No. 11 Novermber 22 2013

Kaplan: teachers 'well paid,' rejects paid holidays, vacations

11/22/2013

One baby step forward and two giant steps back.

After making minimal movement for the first time on pay and benefits last month, Kaplan managers returned to the bargaining table on Nov. 15 still opposing paid holidays and vacations for part-time teachers and unwilling to revise their least-they-can-do wage proposal.

BARGAINING UPDATE

The stonewalling came after the Guild bargaining committee of Kaplan ESL teachers agreed to scale back its economic goals by lowering its proposed starting pay for teaching, its pay rates for non-teaching duties and its proposed pay increases for the term of the contract. 

“There is a pretty compelling argument that these teachers are quite well paid,” said lead management negotiator Patricia Dunn in refusing to move management’s economic package in the teachers’ direction. “I believe we pay our teachers fairly and appropriately.”

Although Dunn said average pay for Kaplan teachers in the classroom was more than $21 an hour, their actual average is much lower. Since the company pays teachers different rates for different duties, including the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for class preparation, the overall average is really $17.59 an hour, 18 percent less than the classroom average. Some teachers average as little as $14.06 an hour.

Guild negotiators, who had already accepted management’s $18 hourly minimum teaching rate for temps and newly hired employees still on their six-month trial periods, reduced their minimum pay proposal for teachers with four-year degrees who had passed their trial periods to $20 from $22. Management, however, still wants to be able to pay those teachers as little as $18 an hour for classroom time.

On class prep and other non-classroom duties, Guild negotiators cut their proposal to $12 from $13. Management is offering only $10 for prep work and essay grading, even though it raised the prep rate to $12 for teachers in every other U.S. city shortly after New York teachers voted for Guild representation in June 2012.

The Guild also cut its proposed pay increase to 3.5 percent for each of three years in the proposed contract from 5 percent, while management is sticking with the 1 percent increase it proposed in each of next two years for employees with a teaching rate of less than $25 an hour.

In its all-encompassing response to management's proposal, the Guild committee also reduced vacations for part-timers with at least one year of service to 10 days a year from a length-of-service scale that ranged from two weeks to five weeks, continued to ask for seven paid holidays for part-timers and reduced the number of teachers who would be eligible for company health care coverage by raising the number of hours needed to qualify to 20 hours a week from 17.

“We have moved significantly in a lot of areas,” Guild Rep Anthony Napoli told management. “I don't think we're all that far apart.”

NO PAY PROPOSAL FROM MANAGEMENTBut Dunn disagreed. “We don't think the proposal we got moves the needle anywhere near where it needs to be,” she said. “We are not willing to respond with a wage proposal given what we’ve seen today.”

Dunn replaced management negotiator Jay Kennedy after Kaplan’s parent company, the Washington Post Co., sold The Washington Post newspaper where Kennedy worked. The parent company said on Nov. 18 it would change its name to Graham Holdings Co., effective Nov. 29.

Management’s steadfast refusal to improve the pay and benefits of its teachers, 90 percent of whom work part time, provoked a rare outburst from the Guild’s usually composed counsel, Rich Corenthal.

“You have to step up and give them some basic benefits, some basic compensation,” Corenthal admonished the management bargaining team. “Stop being greedy.”

Management also refused to agree to use arbitration to resolve disputes over the appropriateness of work assignments or discipline, except for extreme cases where teachers have lost pay because they were suspended or fired. Similarly, Kaplan negotiators refused to agree to a joint teacher-management committee to determine how teachers should be evaluated, with Dunn calling the evaluations “a fundamental management right.”

On paid sick leave, management is still unwilling to do anything more for part-time teachers than the law requires. Beginning next April, New York City will require that all full-time and part-time employees accumulate one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year, which could be carried over into the following year if they are not used.

“We have a business model,” said Dunn. “Most of these teachers are part-time by choice.”

Guild bargaining committee member Shana Dagenhart disagreed. “Kaplan has made a choice to keep the workforce part-time.”

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Dec. 5.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of Kaplan Teachers
Emily Lessem, Unit Chair
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Ben Bush
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis